Hi Puali Yes the J&M coaches are heavy so I put bearings in all the wheels and that helps. Bram's new version all have bearings now.
Re the BR78 / SNCF 232TC open this link to an old post I did on modifying mine to have two side tanks, hand pump and axle pump with a by-pass valve it may interest you.
The link is
Modifications to an old Aster
Russell
I have received an answer from Bram at J&M, and we are discussing what to do. The coaches are in bad state. One window panel is broken, two Wagon Lits emblems are missing, one diafraghm might be damaged, all roofs absolutely need repainting. An there is some questionable lighting wiring, that at least I personally would remove. But the really bothersome thing is, there are surface scratches to the sides. Not though the paint to the metal, so PERHAPS they could be polished and waxed away, like on a car?
In any case, I think you all understand my hesitance to sell these coaches to anyone over the net. There is too much room for dissappointment to occur on the buyer's side. Bram is offering 150Euro/piece, which I can understand. Add the refurbishing work, and then any acceptable profit, and the final offering will be like 5-600 Euro.
I'm really apalled at how the previous owner has managed his locomotives and wagons. ON THE OTHER HAND, I also modify my locomotives and rolling stock. IT IS a BIG PART of the hobby for most of us into live steam.
Like I have systematically repainted all running boards, wooden steps and such on my Maerklin waggons, from plain plastic black, to grained greyish wood. The way the looked 90% of the time in real life.
Straight out of maintanence, they would either be only transparently linseed oiled - or covered in black tar - which is what Maerklin conviniently models. (Modelmaker KM1 has diverted from this.
O 02 Schwerin I sadly missed out on the Preussian version... I have not found any second hand either. I have built one without a brakeman's cab, and have a few other wagons, to make a varied turn of the century coal train.)
I also paint doorhandles in brass/gold, and loading floors to look at least somewhat used. Funny case is my sets of log transport cars. They come in pairs from Maerklin, with sawn large members spanning the two wagons. (In real life, they were also used in singular, for shorter logs and such.) Only, once I mount the prototype screw couplings, the load doesn't quite fit any longer. But I could modify the load.
Though what really makes the difference, is that once I have painted the loading floors and swiweling mechanics, the waggos are simply more beatiful without the load! So my reasoning rationale for running them empty is, the waggons had to sometimes be transported back in an empty state?!?😄
Mind you, I'm doing some sort of "weathering and color change light". I'm not brave enough to attack the entire surfaces of the wagons.
Also, that would involve even more work. But results are good. People wonder if I have employed veneer! (TIP! In the "Fantasy" figurine word, they offer several shades of steel paint, which is a real improvement when painting steel parts.)
And currently, Im working at adding coupled / uncouplable brake hoses in between waggons, as I really think it adds to the general look of a train consist. More so than complete weathering.
I think I have found a method at a reasonable cost. I have 80+ wagons, so cost is a consideration. (A bit silly - pulling more than 20 wagons through 2m radius is basically impossible. So I never get to use all my waggons.
)
Also, adding people figurines to my trains is a top priority. And animals...
I've been collecting cows, pigs, sheep, horses etc for a decade now, to build an envisioned city supply train around 1910 in Germany. Pigs, wine, fish, hay (remember horses ran the transports also in the cities) and what not, came primarily by train.
I have a phantasy project of adding sound to waggons. Apart from obvious animal sounds, I would like to add buffer pounding, and wheel screatching in curves and switches. Something like "singing" greeting cards.
And I do not leave my locomotives "as per factory" either. There I found a really coward sollution to weathering on one German locomotive BR18 with a bright red frame and wheels. I found a tube of black grease (some additive), that I have applied lightly to the underwork's. It work's great! And could easily be washed away.😄
One just has to realize that if selling the stuff might come into question, the market is much more uncertain, smaller, and hence valuation lower. (Or at least very variable. Trust me, I'm an academic economist.)
So from a philosophical view, I have no critisism of my former club member's way to "consume" / enjoy his models. The models are after all more like eating apples and bananas, than doing something to a unique relic revered by others. Even Aster locomotives are not equitable to some unique mideaval hand scripture or a "Mona Lisa".
In his case, testing new ideas were more important, than how it apeared visually, or even actually physically worked. I know, it sounds crazy, but I'm also an inventor. (With a patent for vending machines.) 99,9% of ideas don't work that easy, however clearly cut they might seem, when they meet reality. So it is very easy to end up with a collection of not so well functioning "prototypes". That is what he turned his railway models into.
Russel, how did you get the eccentric onto the axle? Is it some kind of split design? I've always wondered how to make that in a reasonable way.
I seem to remember some method of splitting the material, achieve very flat joining surfaces, solder the together, and then turn the stuff in the lathe. Although I think the part described was an eccentric rod, the method could of course apply to an eccentric disc. Then however, you need to hold the two eccenter pieces together against the axle. All in all, it's not a straight forward idea to me. So please enlighten me!
I am completely confident I will never realize all my ideas. But then again, dreaming is probably also a big part of (my) hobby?!
We are sort of building an all year round "Christmas landscape" - just without Santa, for most of the time. It's a fairy world of sorts.
